High Priority Sectors

3 HIGH PRIORITY SECTORS

Bihar, fundamentally an agrarian economy, has a large agricultural and animal production base offering
abundant supply of raw material to be processed for human consumption. Despite these natural advantages,
the level of food processing is very low and there is scope to improve the food processing levels to meet the
increasing requirements of the state‘s growing population, while at the same time offering a sustainable
consumption market. Further, the rising income and changing life style in the cities as well as rural Bihar is
changing the consumption demand towards processed food. Therefore, the state offers a substantial
opportunity for the food processing industry and is expected to play a leading role in the industrialization drive
of this state.

FOOD PROCESSING (खाद्य प्रसंस्करण)

LEATHER SECTOR (चमड़ा क्षेत्र)

Leather sector has a massive potential for employment, output growth and export. In India, the sector is one of
the top foreign exchange earners. Bihar has a huge potential for investment in the leather sector. On account of
large raw material base (in terms of hides and skins produced in the state), plenty of cheap as well as skilled and
semi-skilled labour, and a huge domestic market for consumption, it offers both comparative and competitive
advantage to a prospective investor in this sector.

The leather industry mainly includes units that are involved in production of finished or semi-finished leather
and manufacturing of various kinds of leather goods. The state govt. has a clear focus to promote all the
facilities in the value chain, from raw material processing to finished-goods manufacturing.

TEXTILE & APPAREL SECTOR (वस्त्र क्षेत्र)

The textile sector plays a key role in the Indian economy by way of significant contribution to GDP,
manufacturing output, employment generation, and export earnings. The sector contributes 14% to industrial
production, 4% to India‘s GDP and constitutes 13% of the country‘s export earnings. The textile sector is one of
the largest source of employment generators in India; it employs over 4.5 crore people, directly.

Bihar has ample potential to house textile units and other value chain activities. Silk is the focus product in
Bihar, for textile units. Bihar has been famous for the production of silk. Bhagalpur district of Bihar has been a
centre of silk fabric manufacturing. Tassar silk of Bhagalpur is an exclusive product of Bihar which has the
potential to fetch premium prices. Bihar had produced around 60 tonnes silk during 2014-15.

Jute is another fibre product produced in the state. Bihar produced around 1420 thousand tonnes of jute in
2014-15. A jute park is being establishing in Maranga, Purnea with an investment of INR 42.36 crore, by
registered SPV M/s Punrasar Jute Park Ltd. Under PPP mode, the State Government has provided 44.30 acres
land as equity and INR 2 crore as a grant. In the jute park, at present, two units M/s Tirupati Commodities
Private Ltd. & M/s Punrasar Jute Park Training Centre have been established and are functional. They are
producing jute yarn, jute twin, jute cloths and other jute products.

There are 14,000 power-looms in Bihar concentrated mainly in Bhagalpur, Gaya, and Banka districts. Their
main products are staple chadar/bed sheets, furnishing clothes, etc. There is a training centre at Nathnagar
(Bhagalpur), run by the Ministry of Textiles, where 120 power-loom weavers are trained each year.

Textile industry is a highly labour-intensive industry. Bihar is home of around one lakh weavers for whom
manufacturing and dealing with fabric and garment is their livelihood. The presence of weavers‘ community is,
therefore, an important asset base in terms of availability of skilled and semi-skilled workers for textile units.
Apart from the regular weaver community, a large number of youths (especially, the female youth) in the state
can be employed in the textile manufacturing units which can offer conducive employment opportunities such
as sewing, stitching, cutting, and other tailoring requirements.

HARDWARE MANUFACTURING (हार्डवेयर विनिर्माण क्षेत्र)

Globally, the IT & ITeS industry, along with the hardware manufacturing sector, is the largest and fastest
growing industry in the world. It is expected to reach around USD 2.4 trillion by 2020. The demand in the
Indian market is poised to reach more than USD 400 billion by 2020. The importance of IT/ITeS sector is not
that of a standalone sector, rather as an integral part of other industries. It has a significant penetration in to all
walks of life. It has been established now that the growth in IT/ITeS sector would spur further growth in the
fields of agriculture, education, healthcare, energy, telecommunication, rural development, tourism, textile, etc.
The sector is yet to take off and move in the desired direction with a pace that offers potential for many
entrepreneurial ventures and start up units. The availability of educated youth and cheap labour in the state
pose a clear advantage to the investment in this sector, in the state. The State Government has also notified land
for two IT Parks at Bihta (Patna) and Rajgir.